emark, but one does not always
meet the fathers-in-law."

"Ha, ha! ve shall see. Bot, Bonker, she is lofly!"

The Baron awaited dinner with even more than his usual ardour. He dressed
with the greatest care, and at an absurdly early hour was already urging
his friend to come down and take their places. Indeed after a time there
was no withholding him, and they finally took their seats in the
dining-room before anybody else.

At what seemed to the impatient Baron unconscionably long intervals a few
people dropped in and began to study their menus and glance with an air of
uncomfortable suspicion at their neighbours.

"I vonder vill she gom," he said three or four times at least.

"Console yourself, my dear Baron," his friend would reply; "they always
come. That's seldom the difficulty."

And the Baron would dally with his victuals in the most unwonted fashion,
and growl at the rapidity with which the courses followed one another.

"Do zey suppose ve vish to eat like----?" he began, and then laying his hand
on his friend's sleeve, he whispered, "She goms!"

Mr Bunker turned his head just in time to see in the doorway the Countess
of Grillyer and the Lady Alicia a Fyre.

"Is she not fair?" asked the Baron, excitedly.

"I entirely approve of your taste, Baron. I have only once seen any one
quite like her before."

With a gratified smile the Baron filled his glass, while his friend seemed
amused by some humorous reflection of his own.

The Lady Alicia and her mother had taken their seats at a table a little
way off, and at first their eyes never happened to turn in the direction
of the two friends. But at last, after looking at the ceiling, the carpet,
the walls, the other people, everything else in the room it seemed, Lady
Alicia's glance fell for an instant on the Baron. That nobleman looked as
interesting as a mouthful of roast duck would permit him, but the glance
passed serenely on to Mr Bunker. For a moment it remained serene; suddenly
it became startled and puzzled, and at that instant Mr Bunker turned his
own eyes full upon her, smiled slightly, and raised his glass to his lips.

The glance fell, and the Lady Alicia blushed down to the diamonds in her
necklace.

The Baron insisted on lingering over his dinner till the charmer was
finished, and so by a fortuitous coincidence they left the room
immediately behind the Countess. The Baron passed them in the passage, and
a few yards farther he looked round